January 23, 2011- If anyone thinks that the vitriol that Glenn Beck spews on his radio and TV shows can't sometimes stir people to aggressive and hateful action, they should take a look at the postings on his website, The Blaze, about Frances Fox Piven.

For two years Beck has targeted the political science professor as a Marxist Machiavelli whose writings constitute a manifesto for a radical revolution.

But in recent months Beck has escalated his hate campaign against Piven, a professor at the City University of New York, former vice president of the American Political Science Association, and former president of the American Sociological Association. He labeled Piven one of the "nine most dangerous people in the world," and "an enemy of the Constitution."

Not surprisingly, this has led to a dramatic rise in ugly threats to the 78-year-old Piven.

Some of Beck's followers have emailed Piven directly. One of the anonymous emailers simply wrote "DIE YOU CUNT" in the subject line. Another wished that she would get cancer.

Since September, The Blaze has published eight articles about Piven with headlines like "Frances Fox Piven Rings in the New Year by Calling for Violent Revolution" and "Piven: Violence is Okay If It's Part of Your Strategy."

In the wake of the Tucson massacre, Beck exhorted his audience to take a pledge to denounce "violent threats and calls for the destruction of our system -- regardless of their underlying ideology -- whether they come from the Hutaree Militia or Frances Fox Piven."

The Blaze also posted an audio recording of remarks Piven made at a meeting of faculty retirees in early December. She had been invited to comment on the 2010 election. In the course of the discussion, people asked about the sociological causes of the Tea Party movement. Piven discussed what is known about the demographic characteristics of Tea Partiers. She added that she suspected that older Tea Party sympathizers were also reacting against changes in family and sexual norms triggered by the women's and gay rights movement. Piven suspects that a conservative colleague used a cell phone to record the comments featured on The Blaze article titled, "Frances Fox Piven: The Tea Party is All About Sex."